Spooky....

Does anyone remember the Moog from Will o' the Wisp?



Well tonight, he made a reappearance in my courgette...............


....................................................................................................................................................






Cool ey? Much better than finding Jesus in there!

iP and Moog the Courgette

No, you can't die of insomnia

Lately, my insomnia has reached new heights and I don't even bother going to bed now, until ridiculous am. I figured it would be more productive to just get on t'interweb for a few hours, rather than spending two hours in bed, tossing, turning, deciding what's left on my iPod to listen to etc. I'm worried about getting into a bad pattern, which will ultimately worsen the whole thing. But I'm not doing much about it. I found some Nytol the other day and took that, but it just made me feel kind of drunk, but not sleepy drunk. I need to sort it out really, and plan to use this time to effectively research sleeping aids. You'd think I'd have thought of that before now, but I haven't. I tell you what though, I've found out some random stuff on my nightly internet trawls:

- The first ever film clip filmed, was made by some French dude who lived in Leeds near Roundhay Park (Michael Jackson performed at Roundhay park to give you an idea of scale and venue type, though it is an actual park, all very bizarre). Anyway, this French dude, and all the people in the film, ALL died in mysterious circumstances. Weird ey? I actually spent a long time reading about this but am trying to provide edited highlights so as not to bore those of you who CAN sleep.



- Abraham Lincoln was well interesting! He was 6'4" which was gigantic in those days, and was born in a one-room log cabin to two farmers (male and female obviously, nothing Brokebackish going on there). They were totally uneducated but moved around a fair bit to escape harsh conditions. Then, Abe's mum died of Milk Sickness (see below). Some other stuff happened, and then he was shot. Again, I'm skimming here.



- Milk Sickness, ever heard of it? Well, it's also known as 'tremetol poisoning or in animals as trembles, and is characterized by trembling, vomiting, and severe intestinal pain that affects individuals who eat dairy products or meat from a cow that has fed on white snakeroot. Although highly rare today, milk sickness claimed thousands of lives in the early 19th century.' I copied the info off Wikipedia, as my re-writing it would have just been confusing!



- Bruce Campbell (who is my god), starred in a Starbucks campaign called 'The Way I See It', which involved famous people spouting ideas about stuff on the sides of the cups. Bruce's contribution was:

The Way I See It #65: If you're worried about getting a job--or keeping one--start a company of your own. By doing so, you'll reap the rewards of your hard work and you'll only get fired if you fail. This is the land of opportunity. Live in it.


I like the simplicity of his view, but am not sure it's always that easy!!




I found a shed load of other crap too, but I can't put it all on here. I have also watched a couple of DVDs, listened to music, and joined lots of random groups on Facebook. Ooh, and I've read Tim's Blog lots too, which entertained me more than any of this other gubbins. Laughing hysterically in the middle of the night seems so much more enjoyable than it does in the middle of the day for some reason. Maybe it's just sleep deprivation that makes you feel funny, who knows?!!

Hefty drew my attention to this today, a story on BBC News about two sisters from Sweden who, upon being caught on camera walking down the central reservation of the M6, decided to make a run for it! I can only recommend that you watch the video! There's nothing gory on it, it's just maniacal!!!

A couple of Swedish meatballs

I don't think I've ever posted so many photos and links before, I'm not sure what's come over me. Maybe the insomnia has unleashed some kind of creative genius in me! Then again, it really is only a few pictures and a couple of links.

Last week, I did something slightly bonkers, I signed up for World of Warcraft. No really. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and because Padical is a Level 70 Dwarf Priest (that's effing amazing apparently), I thought I'd be in good hands. He sent me a link and off I went. God I was bad, I mean, REALLY bad. People immediately tried to fight with me because I was an easy kill. Kind of unfair I thought, but it's common in WoW. I spent a few hours trying to kill stuff, then left because I felt overwhelmed, confused, and a failure! I have yet to go back, I am too scared! Isn't that rubbish? At least it was a free trial, I haven't paid for it or anything. I've never been very into computer games, I got to about Level 4 on Mario! Ha! How bad is that! I lose interest if I can't do something. I feel I should venture back in to the World, but whether I will, I do not know.....

Right, I'm offski!

Ciao for now!

iP

The Travelling Blogger*

Well my GB book has arrived! I have yet to open it, but I know I haven't ordered anything else from Amazon! I actually need to get on with some guitar playing, because there is now a need for me to do some crunching......

On Sunday, our rehearsal was most triumphant! Down with the Sickness was storming, much to the surprise of us all! But it was also semi-decided that perhaps we didn't need another band member after all. I can't remember what I have written about the band on here, but when we first formed, the original plan was to have a 50/50 split vocally between me and and a guy called Mike, but Mike left after the first rehearsal cos he got a job in London. So then I did all the singing, but Padical (the guitarist and founder) was still on the look out for someone else. He then decided an extra guitarist would be good too so he looked for someone who could do both. He found someone who we all met a couple of times, but then Padical decided that he wanted me to do most of the vocals, then on Sunday, after the guy left (we've only met him, he's not played with us yet) everyone decided that it might be best if we just stayed as we were, because we work really well together, and bringing someone in at this stage might mess up the dynamic. Also, because I pulled off Sickness and Beautiful People, it is the general consensus that I can pretty much sing anything! Yay! I think that means I am loved.........!! :0) Also though, if the new guy only had a bit of singing to do, and not that much guitar stuff, it would be kind of shitty on him. It's not really fair to expect someone to only join in for a few songs out of 40!! So, Padical said that perhaps I could do the filler bits, which I'm going to have a bloody good go at!!! Slightly scared, but up for the challenge! Also, it makes me look cool! Check me out, I've turned into an egomaniac, clearly I was born to be a rock star!!!! :0)

Going to see Scars on Broadway with Ming on Sunday. I'm not a System of a Down fan really, I like the odd song but I can take them or leave them, but SOB is a band with SOAD members Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan in it. He lent me the album and I listened to half of the first song and thought, 'Ooh no.' Since then however, I have listened to the whole album about 4 times, and I actually do like them after all! So we're off to see them, which I'm excited about cos I've not been to a gig for ages.

Recently I have been listening to Curve, and I really like them. I got the Greatest Hits album off Padical, but I'm eager to borrow the rest of the albums because they were one of those bands I always thought I should listen to, but never did. I do remember going into HMV about ten years ago and picking up Come Clean. But it was £18.99 (remember when CDs cos that much?!!) and at the time, I only had a Saturday job, which paid £20.00 per week, and I wasn't willing to give up that much poundage to take a risk on a band I'd never heard. Instead I saved up my money and bought Death to the Pixies on Limited Edition 10 inch Vinyl, which I have NEVER played! Ha! How ridiculous of me, I am guilty of so many random acts that I always look back and think, what did I do that for?!!

I am writing this from the living room of my next-door neighbour's house. She, well, they, there are two of them! THEY are having some fitted wardrobes put it, but are both doctors and have difficulty getting time off. I sometimes sit here and house-sit whilst they have people in, which suits me fine, nice to get out! Anyway, as we live in a mews townhouse thingy, and their lounge is directly adjacent to ours, I figured that my MacBook would probably work here, and I'm delighted to say that it does!!! Alas, I can also hear Ozzy barking, which is terrible! I never knew the little punk was so noisy when I went out!! Actually, it's not that bad, he only does it when people walk through the field behind our house, and he does that when I'm in anyway so it's probably not as bad as I thought. It's not even that loud either, I'm just being paranoid!



Right, speaking of young Oswald, it's time I nipped back to check on him. And shut him up!

:0) iP

* Clearly I haven't travelled very far, but I have travelled none the less!

Inspire me

I am about to order Garageband for Dummies, which I hope will help my understanding of it dramatically. I've also worked out what accessories I need (I think), but I'm going to wait til the book arrives just to make sure.

I've spent the morning listening to Mer de Noms, which is my favourite A Perfect Circle album, trying to feel inspired....and I do feel that way to a certain extent, but I'd like to know what I'm doing technically before I start faffing about with stuff. On top of this, I have a rehearsal with the other band tomorrow, and I really need to learn some songs I'm not familiar with. A couple of the new ones aren't songs I particularly like, so it's hard work. Having to listen to something that grates on you over and over is painful, and feels like some kind of torture!!! I'm sure that sounds ridiculous, but I'm not one of these people who can just listen to anything and not be bothered by it. Still, managing to sneak in some Disturbed and Korn might balance out my mind a bit (I hope!).

Paying a visit to the hairdressers today, my hair desperately needs dying. Blonde roots with dark brown hair look truly hideous!! I was going to put a picture up, but I just opened Photo Booth and they looked even worse than I realised, so I decided not to bother!

Haven't posted any football news for a while (probably because nobody cares!) but I'm quite impresses that the Hammers have managed to lose a manager and shirt sponsor all in the space of two weeks. To be honest, I never liked Curbishley anyway, I didn't want him so good riddance! I would have preferred Paolo di Canio to Zola (an ex-Chelsea player FFS?!) but as Chelsea players go, I don't mind him. Not sure what sort of a manager he'll be, but I guess we'll find out! Never liked XL as a sponsor, think it looks stupid and I haven't bought a shirt for ages because of that. I think my fave sponsors were Dr Martens, it looked cool and I like Doc Martens! Not sure who we'll get next, I just hope it's not crap! Apple would be my dream! But unlikely I know. The website reckons we'll find out next week, fingers crossed!!!!



Right, must go, Ozzy is outside barking his head off at nothing (business as usual) and I don't want to get arrested for noise pollution.

Toodle the Oo!

iP

Nothing interesting

Well now, I have a fair few new songs to learn for the band, and some of them have been rather surprising. For a start, Down with the Sickness was thrown into the mix, which made me attempt to sneak a cheeky Korn song in there (well they are my favourites). I managed to score a hit with Here to Stay, and then Land of Confusion (the Disturbed version) and Beautiful People came into it, which led us all down a very sordid path of death and destruction....so, I am UBER excited!!! It has been suggested that the freaky shouting bit in the middle of Sickness is left out, which I don't suppose is the end of the world, but other than that I am delighted to be singing my favourite songs! The other set list we had was substantial but inoffensive, so it's nice to have some edgy alternatives to throw in there. Yay!!!

Recently, I have been doing NOTHING of interest, which won't surprise anyone. I've mainly been trying to learn new songs, and sort out some of my own because I desperately want to make some original music. Ideally, I'd like an originals band, but I'm not sure how to go about it, so my initial plan was to just plough some stuff into Garageband and see what happened. I bought a new guitar (pictured at top) but I have never used Garageband so I don't know what to do with it, and I haven't actually put it on my Mac yet either, it's still in the study somewhere with the rest of the iLife Appley goodness. Progress = SLOW.

Yesterday, I went to see my friend as she had a baby at the end of July, and I needed to have a nosy at the little fella. He was very cute, and we decided to go out for lunch to the nearby village. It was all good, until we tried to leave. EPIC FAIL! Her power-steering broke, we couldn't move the car, and this warning alarm kept coming on. We had to phone the breakdown people, and explain that we had a 6 week old baby in the car, hoping they'd rush. No such luck, 2 hours later they rolled up and reset it all by unplugging the battery! FFS!! We managed to keep baby happy and reasonably quiet, but I have to say, as someone who doesn't sit in pubs very often, it felt like a lifetime spending three hours in there. The staff were very nice, and kept the juice and coffee flowing, but I started to flag after a while, and my eyes were hurting. The RAC dude drove us back to her house, in the car so he could see what happened. Nothing happened. Typical. Then the RAC dude said he was going to walk back to the pub car-park cos he didn't think it was that far. We did, but I didn't want to give him a lift back cos he was a bit strange, and there was no point my friend doing it. Her husband was happy to drop him off when he got home, but he wasn't back at that point so off the guy went. Random! When I was finally on the drive home, I saw the coppers pull over a car with this little old couple in it. I can't imagine what they did, but I imagined them to be foul-mouthed heathens, like Betty White in Lake Placid (thanks for reminding me of her recently Timbo!).



What else have I done/seen? Hmm. Not a lot.

I'm going to go and have some Rice Krispies.

Does anyone else think this is wrong?

This is really very strange....


SPUK


I'm not sure if it's the concept or choice of colours that disturbs me most...

For the benefit of Tim Part 2

I'm seeing it now. Though obviously you're not scary looking like this dude!

For the benefit of Tim

See, it looks like hair, and even though I dye my blonde hair brown, if I were to dye it back, this is a rather fetching shade to aim for!

Sigh

Okay, so I've been away again, and this is why:

- I now look after my niece every Tuesday, from 8am til 5.30pm - it's a LOOOOONG day!!

- I've had a couple of band rehearsals and really needed to learn some songs - this takes hours!

- I've been ill again, it sucks, but it happens.

- I randomly got asked by my friend to be a food critic for Food & Drink magazine, so I spent lots of time panicking, and then researching restaurants, before doing my first one, and then fretting in case what I'd written was rubbish. I'm doing restaurant number two on Thursday!

- I've been reading the Dexter books, AND watching series one of the programme.

- I've been trying to cook stuff, which, though it has worked out well so far, has proved time consuming, chopping is a laborious but necessary task.


And that's pretty much it, aside from the usual daily duties I perform, of cleaning, washing, looking after Ozzy etc. Ooh, I also went to the dentist, and am delighted to report that I'm still able to perform the old 'zero fillings' hand sign from the old Colgate adverts (circa 1980s).

So there you go.

And today, I went to see The Dark Knight. It was an utter farce to begin with. They dropped the film or something, so we had to wait an extra fifteen minutes for them to put it on, and then when they did, the first three minutes were without sound. Let me tell you, I have always been obsessed with Batman films/programmes (and Batman), I have loved them all (except Batman and Robin, I have standards), and certainly in the instance of Batman films, the beginning is VERY important to me. I NEED that build up, so to watch the bit where Batman is propelled through dark flames (it's at the very beginning, I'm not spoiling anything here) with no sound, meant I didn't get off to a good start, and I felt slightly cheated. I now have to see it again JUST for that bit, which probably makes me seem ridiculous. Anyway, I have been very excited about this film for a long time, because I loved Batman Begins.

You know what? I rather liked it, it was pretty good, there's no doubt that Heath Ledger was frikkin awesome, but I think I need to see it again, because I came away, still feeling slightly cheated. I'm not sure if it's the psychology behind missing the beginning that has done this to me, but I just don't feel right. I expected to come away with a feeling of 'Oh my god! That was wickedace, I must see it at least three more times!' And I can't stress enough, that I really DID like it, but I must have missed something because as I say, I just feel like it was lacking. My initial problems seem to be:


- I found the plot to be a bit predictable. I'm not going to give anything away, but the twists weren't twisty to me, and I had several eye rolling moments where I knew what was going to happen and wasn't surprised when it did.

- I feel like there wasn't enough fighting, I can only remember a couple of fight scenes, which to me, is not enough, but if there were more than that then I should spot them second time round.

- Harvey Dent annoyed me all the way through it.

- I'm not sure Batman was actually in it that much? Again, when I watch it second time round I shall pay attention to this, but I can't recall him putting in a lot of appearances.

- I'm looking forward to Bruce Wayne's mansion being rebuilt, because a Batman film without a Batcave, just isn't cricket for me. I've spent years trying to convince Hefty that we should build our own Batcave, and I don't want to see all my hard work undone just because some dude thinks the floor of an office building will suffice. Similarly, however corny, I expect to see bats at some point. Real flying bats. I don't know, it's a symbolic thing.

- The overall flow just didn't flow to me. I felt there were many unresolved things that just made it all a bit messy, and they weren't important enough to ever come up in any future films.


So again, I MUST STRESS!! I really did LIKE it, I did! I just need to see it again because I didn't love it, and I feel like I've missed something. Incidentally, I didn't think it was too long, I didn't even notice, so I'm not completely evil.

There you have it then. I have probably just opened myself up for being the most hated person in the world, but I needed to get this off my chest because it's really bothering me. I'm not going to apologise, it's not my fault! Maybe when I see it again I shall return and write a whole different post, but for now, it is what it is folks.

I'm off to watch Batman and Batman Begins now, I need to restore my faith in my favourite hero (after Hefty of course).

I can be found hiding in the co-ordinates of D2 on page 33 of the AA Road Atlas. Send your firing squads there, and I'll try to make it easy for them.

iP :0(

Ozfest

Okay, I know I posted ten photos and a video of Ozzy, just four posts ago, but I have this new one, and I just love it so much that I simply had to thrust it into the ether.



Gotta love the fluffy little fella!

:0)

In the night garden....(well, in the garden, at night)

Last night, we had a visitor in the garden of Pandah Palace. Young Ozzy discovered our new guest, and they were obviously having a good old chinwag cos we couldn't get him back inside! He then helped himself to what was left of Ozzy's dinner, before bidding us farewell and shuffling off to sit behind the hose reel.

I'd love to say we got a picture, but alas, we didn't, so this is the best I could do!



That's about as much news as I have I think? Ooh, though I do have another band rehearsal on Sunday, yay!

Which reminds me, I need to practice!!!

iP

A ha!

Hefty solved it, it's to do with tags. We downloaded Acorn - yay!

WALKTALK

Okay, so today I participated in something called WALKTALK.

When the London bombings happened, the last person to be pulled out was a lady called Gill Hicks, who lost both her legs in the attack, but still managed to walk down the aisle 6 months later. She really is an amazing woman, unbelievable, and I got involved because my friend Kimberley helped organise the event. The idea behind it is that Gill and her husband are going to walk from Leeds to London in a month, and people can join in along the way, but they must talk as well as walk. It's about people who would never normally meet or mix, just talking to each other as equals. Gill's philosophy is that there's too much of a 'Them' and 'Us' society these days, and perhaps if people communicated a bit better, there wouldn't be so much hatred and misunderstanding. The first part of the walk, which was launched today, ended up in a place called Beeston, and it's actually the place where the bomber came from. I'm not normally sentimental or anything like that, but I thought that was quite profound. I can't imagine being in a terrorist attack (and I hope I never am) or losing my legs, but then reaching out to the community that raised the guy, well I just couldn't do it. It was very poignant, and as I don't normally do anything like this, I actually felt quite proud to be involved. I know it's corny, but I did, so there. It's going on for the next month anyway, they'll be working their way down the country, which again, I mean, she's got prosthetic legs, I only walked 5 miles and I'm knackered!!! Here's the link to the website anyway if anyone's interested:

WALKTALK

When we reached Beeston, we had lunch, and then Colin Jackson appeared out of nowhere (just like the shopkeeper in Mr Benn), because he's been following the initiative on Sunday LIVE, a programme on BBC1 (think it's on at 10am tomorrow). I didn't speak to him, but I noticed he had some nasty tracksuit bottoms on. Still, that's not really important! See, I had a moment of compassion and now I've slipped back into my evil ways....
Anyway, we then let a load of balloons into the sky, which looked really cool! And then everyone went on to the next bit of the walk, where there was a picnic going on, but me and Kimbers headed off. It was really interesting though, and I did talk to loads of people who I would never talk to normally. I discovered how dull I was, as I didn't think that saying I was a Lady of Leisure would be a particularly good barrier-breaking conversation topic, so I just told people what I used to do, and let's face it, accounts isn't a talking point in any social situation! But it was still pretty cool, even if I am not!

Right, have to go, dinner has arrived!

Ciao for now peeps!

iP

I'm now recovering from doing the most exercise I've done all year, by having Chinese food and watching Dexter.

Photomographs

So, I thought it was about time I posted some more photos before I move onto the serious business of writing about what I've been up to.

Firstly, for the benefit of Tim, these are the best shots I could manage of Ozzy in his cat tent. They're naff quality (camera phones, tsk) but will have to do:





And here are some more gratuitous Ozzy shots.

These are a couple of shots of Ozzy assuming his favourite lying down position. I'd have to dislocate both my hips to achieve anything like this:




These are random pictures of cuteness, the pink bandage he got from the vets, and an arty shot involving a Habitat garden chair!






This is me having a bath, or rather, taking a photo of Ozzy whilst in the bath! He comes to have a nosey at what I'm up to, and then spends ten minutes just walking sideways along the bath (in this position), and squeaking because he can't get in!



And this is a video clip of him being clipped by the groomer. He waves at people as they go past, as if to say, "Help me, I don't like being clean!"



And this is something I saw today in Leeds City Centre - a place I don't frequent - a real-life proper Mini, glued (or possibly something stronger) to a billboard. Crazy!



I did have a rotated picture of it, but Blogger NEVER uses these versions, so my pictures always come out squiffy! Any ideas Tim? Surely you have to rotate pictures sometimes, it can't just be me?!!

Here's another one. I pulled into the Junction 27 retail park (a distinguished place) to go to Boots and Costa Coffee (the Starbucks is in Borders and has a separate and ridiculously small car park), and spotted this ostentatiously decorated Fiat Punto:



God how annoying!! ROTATE, ROTATE!!! Anyway, in case you can't see, it's a delightful bottle green shade, with neon pink stars all over it. My immediate thought was, 'This is the kind of random shit Tim would take a photo of, so I must do the same.' And as if by magic, a red Mini pulled up in the spot next to mine. A sign! He wasn't in it, but that's not the point!!!

So there you go. Random photos and ramblings. And as this is all very random, I feel now is as good a time as any to say that I'm watching Cadfael on ITV3 and Johnny Lee Miller's in it. Whatever happened to him?

Right. Now I shall move on to the blogging...

Nightmare

We had no Internet yesterday, ALL day, can you imagine?!!

Oh hell. BRB.

News and Reviews

Well it looks like my new blogging average is about once a month, impressive....not. Best make the best of it then!

I have now decided to split my posts up into sections under little headlines, so they're more flowing and readable, as opposed to the usual amount of incoherent nonsense. It'll still be slightly chaotic, I've decided to dispense with any kind of time-line of events, and just spout off what's gone on, in no particular order. So, it's probably going to end up like a text version of the camera work in Cloverfield, but with less nausea (maybe).

Dexter
Dexter has become my new obsession. It started off because I saw an advert for the TV show and liked the music. I didn't really pay any attention to what the programme was about, until one day, it was on, and Hefty said "It's supposed to be really good that series." Well, I immediately Googled and Wikipediaed it and decided that it was right up my street, having, as I do, an obsession with murder/crime/stuff like that, though not in an 'inspired to kill' kind of way. So, first port of call was to read the books, as I like to be a purist about these things. I ordered 'Darkly Dreaming Dexter' and, because we now have the totally awesome Amazon Prime thing going on, it arrived the next day. And I pretty much read it in a day. SOLD. I passed it on to Hefty who prefers reading O'Reilly books normally, or so it seems, and he also read it in a day. So, straight onto the DVD rental site went I, and managed to procure Disc 1 within about 3 days. When it arrived, although I should have waited for Heft, I sat and watched it all, and LOVED it. So, I went back on to Amazon Prime, ordered 'Dearly Devoted Dexter', and then went to Play USA to buy the complete series (cos it was £17.99 on there and 30 squids everywhere else). Brilliant! I've watched half of the series so far, twice, I sat through it again with Hefty, and I really do love it. Am halfway through the second book too and I also really like that. So I'm entertained out at the moment, which is nice, because as I'm waiting for new BSG to come on (even though I have a feeling I'll be sorely disappointed, maybe even horrified like I was with the ending of series 3) I currently don't have anything to watch. Hurrah.


Ozzy
On Sunday, Ozzy found and ate half a bunch of grapes, the little swine! Luckily, Hefty caught him in the act and we managed to get him in at the emergency vets. He was in overnight where they made him sick (didn't have to pump his stomach thankfully) and had him on a drip. Phew! In case you didn't know, grapes and raisins are extremely poisonous to dogs and cats, worse than chocolate, and they can die within a couple of days from renal failure if you don't act quickly. Scary! Apparently, not a lot of people know that (why am I suddenly thinking about Michael Caine?) so the vet was very pleased. I went to pick him up yesterday and he was sporting a neon pink bandage on his front leg, cos they'd run out of blue! He looked like an 80s dog, it was very cool. Anyway, he seemed okay when he got home, but today he's been very jumpy and squeaky, so I took him back to the vets (thank god for pet insurance). It would seem he's got a rash on the spot where they took blood samples from him, so we've got some cream! She reckoned he was also feeling sorry for himself because he's a moody dog, so I've left him to it. He's been in his little cat tent for most of the day, sleeping (or maybe plotting to take over the world Tim), and generally looking miserable. I feel bad, but he won't come out so there's not much I can do. Sigh.


Band
Had another band rehearsal last week, and I was initially a bit worried, because the male vocalist left cos he got a job in London, so that meant I suddenly became the lead singer! I wasn't nervous, it's really weird, and slightly corny, but it's just the best feeling in the world doing this, so I don't feel nervous, just excited. However, I was worried in case the rest of the band thought I was crap, cos I'd only done backing vocals so far. Luckily, it was a HUGE success!! I had learned all the songs, as you might expect, or so I thought. Apparently, none of the other singers in other bands they'd been in ever learned songs properly, they just half-heartedly attempted stuff. 1-0 to Pop Star Pandah. Also, I just sang really well, and everyone seemed really impressed, and told me I was awesome, which was even better! 2-0 to Pop Star Pandah. They could have been lying, but I really blasted out You Oughta Know by Alanis Morissette (love it or hate it, it's a good song to sing if you're in a covers band), and when it finished, the lead guitarist and founder just laughed (in amazement, he explained), and said 'F*cking hell we need to do more songs like that." 3-0, game over. Yay!
They wanted to rehearse again on Friday, which I was well up for, but Hefty says Fridays are 'our night', and he doesn't want to sit in on his own. I was really disappointed, and am still a bit gutted, but I know what he means. However, I'm hoping that maybe the odd Friday, he won't mind, if I ask very nicely. It's the best night for everyone else which is just typical. Oh well. Sigh :0(


Film and TV
Today on iPlayer, I watched a programme that was on on BBC3 last night (I missed it obviously) called 'Sasha: Beauty Queen at 11'. It was very car crash, but one of the most entertaining things I've seen for ages. I'm sure it was callously edited, but that's not my fault, I can only judge what I saw. Basically, it was about this self-obsessed mother who'd wanted to be a model and failed, so decided to make her kids do it instead. Her main focus was her daughter Sasha, and it was actually really sad. This girl was talking about stuff, but she had no enthusiasm, there was no sparkle in her eyes, she was just empty, dead, talking about how she'd describe herself as 'Pretty, blonde, and dumb - I don't need brains.' She seemed to like some aspects of the stuff, but I think it was more to do with the attention she was getting from people, and not her Mum. Her Mum just pushed and pushed, threatened, belittled, god it was awful. I can only recommend that you get on iPlayer and watch it, because it's just unbelievable. Really sad, but thoroughly watchable, which probably means I'm sick in the head or something.
Have watched a few films recently too, and these are my thoughts:

No Country for Old Men - Cracking film, Spanish guy - well scary! WATCH!!!
Knocked Up - Would be better if the annoying, horrible, vapid, whiny women weren't in it, but as it's about a pregnancy, they have to be (well, one of them does).
Hallam Foe - Really interesting idea, likeable characters, bit sad, but I thought it was good, on a par with The Chumscrubber.
Superbad - Hilarious, I'm actually going to buy this, the 2 main characters were just brilliant. George Michael from Arrested Development is in it. Wickedgood!


Floors
We're currently having the floors I blogged about put down. Hooray! But that means I have to go, as Hefty's just got home.


Ciao for now.

Life etc.

I'm going to dispense with the usual apologies and reasons why I haven't written anything for ages. I'm ill and busy, that's as much as I can be bothered to say!

Kitchen is all done, just needs a lick of paint and some shelves, pictures etc. Shower taps are a revelation, I wish I'd had one five years ago when I first started washing up. Garden is also pretty much done, we just need some plants. I tried to take pictures, well, I DID take pictures, but Hefty must have turned my MacBook Bluetooth off so I can't connect with my phone. I don't know the admin password or any of that malarkey he set up when we got it, so I'll have to wait til he gets up to ask him. Bah!

We've ordered flooring now which is jolly exciting. We went for this product called Karndean, which is essentially vinyl tiling, but it comes in many different effects and thicknesses. For the kitchen we're going for a Limestone Tile in 'Jersey' from the Art Select range (I don't know what any of that means but it sounds impressive):



And for the lounge and dining room, although Hefty wanted real wood, I managed to convince him of the practicalities of Karndean, and how new puppy + real wood might not be a winning combination, so we're having American Oak from the Da Vinci range:



To say it's not real wood, it's really amazing, because it looks very realistic and feels pretty woody too! Hefty was surprised by it, and I think the quality spoke for itself, so we should have it in the next couple of weeks! We ordered some sofa's too, and did rather well as Heal's were having a 50% off sale, so we essentially got two for the price of one!! Yay! They should arrive in six to eight weeks, which is the longest we've ever had to wait for a sofa (or anything actually) but it'll be worth it:



I was worried we'd have a generic looking lounge; wood floors, leather sofas, but once we get the gold curtains and Roman blind (currently being made, I hope!) it should actually look pretty wicked.

In other news, a fox got into my sister's garden and made a beeline for the rabbits!! They've managed to up the security and so far so good (!), but now, the Biz is obsessed with foxes. If she hears a noise in the house it's "Is that the fox?" But perhaps the most hilarious thing, is that because she's never actually seen the fox, she thinks it's the one my sister pointed out to her on TV as an example. The fox from the Foxy Bingo adverts!!! So Biz thinks a fox in a purple suit is getting in the garden! Oh how we laughed!! :0)



Going to have to get Barkbusters back, as young Oswald is being a royal pain in the ass! He's reverted back to being a little punk, so I'm relieved we paid for the lifetime policy!!! His fluffy little ass needs a good whooping! >:0(

Need to take him out actually, before the storms come (where oh where is Summer?!), so I'll have to scoot.

Let the hayfever commence, atchoooo!

Part 1 - Housey stuff

Well, it's been quite a couple of weeks, I don't know where to start. Hmm....

I think I'll start with the house. We now have blinds up everywhere and curtains ordered for the lounge. We have bookcases in the study, and the kitchen units are in. You may recall the kitchen units being in quite a while ago, we were just waiting for the worktops to be made and delivered yesterday? Yesterday came and went, so Hefty called up Customer Services who said it would actually be NEXT Friday when they were coming. WTF??!! Needless to say, 'off' was kicked, big style. We WERE told 13th of June when the guys came to measure up, but the worktop company tried to say we made a mistake. Luckily, the kitchen fitter was there when they said it and also had the 13th down. He was due to come on Monday to finish everything off, and now has to come next week, which is a pain for him as he's got other stuff to do!! Those punks. Yet another complaint for the list of 'Things that have gone awry with our new kitchen.' It's the fact that they told us that date, and never contacted us to say otherwise, we're not effing psychic!! Hefty took the day off work too, because they said they'd need his help carrying the tops up the stairs. So he's going to bill them for a day's pay as that's what he's lost for no reason. I'm just really pissed off cos I'm SICK of having to use the utility room. Carrying stuff up and downstairs is a real pain in the ass, not to mention the fact we've not had any proper food for two weeks. Hefty made an executive decision; we can't live on microwave pasta and beans anymore. We're going to go out for dinner every night instead. Sounds good, but it'll probably result in horrendous weight gain, for me anyway. V annoying people!!!!!

The garden landscaping commences on Tuesday, so we ordered a BBQ and a table, chairs and parasol from Habitat. Ooh, and some groovy sun loungers. We got 20% off too, always a Brucie Bonus! The BBQ is awesome, we used it the other night even though it was freezing. It's a beast of a machine, but worth every penny!! Behold:



I now have brown hair agin which is good news! I feel much better, it always makes me feel more confident, and I don't get heckled in the street or patronised by people in shops. Yay for brown hair!!!

We're getting SKY soon, which we were originally getting because Hefty was going to get broadband from them, but he's not anymore so I'm not sure why we're still getting it. Anyway, B&O are coming to install it so that it's done properly, and not by SKY who are notoriously bad at that kind of thing. But, our local B&O shop have closed down, so they had a 25% off sale, and Hefty bought lots of things with silly names. I wish they'd just call stuff by its name, cos I don't have a clue what they're on about. For example, we have a new pilot (remote control, don't know why I call it a pilot but I do), and it's just called a Beo5. Why?!!! I can't work it anyway, it's touch screen or something, but it looks silly so I just use the other one.



Over-complicated if you ask me, but what do I know. We're getting some speakers and stuff too, but no doubt they won't be called that.

I have to go and pick Hefty up from work, I shall have to continue this later. Oh the anticipation....

Doh!

I just watched The Chumscrubber again, and Hefty brought an error to my attention. In an earlier blog, I said it was like a cross between American Pie and Donnie Darko. I ACTUALLY meant American Beauty!! Good god! Bit of a difference. Clearly I am a tard. A hot table-wiping tard (for the benefit of Tim)!!!

:0)

Separated at birth?

The Tunnel

I've realised why Ozzy gets so dirty when he goes outside, today I found....the tunnel! Yes, that's right, young Ozmond has been digging himself a tunnel into next door's garden. Now, here are some things you should know about Ozzy:

- He can open bolts, he got into my sister's rabbit's hutch twice, and she definitely locked the door.
- We have used his old pen to fence off the dining room as all the kitchen stuff is in there, but no matter how we arrange it, he always manages to find a way through.
- He can jump over baby gates.
- He's exceptionally good at digging, on any surface.
- He loves cats.

Bearing these things in mind, it should come as no surprise that not only does he dig his tunnel, when he's finished, he moves a spare plant pot over it. Genius! He does love the cats next door, but they taunt him through the fence, so he obviously felt the need to take action. But I had no idea he was so close to achieving his goal. I almost feel bad for blocking it off, part of me wants him to succeed, but I really can't let him get next door, because:

a) They don't have a gate so he might get onto the street, and then work his way towards the road.
b) The cats'll have 'im.

So I moved the hose pipe reel over it, as well as some other plant pots. We're having the garden landscaped in a couple of weeks and it'll be made dog-proof then. But, despite my raining on his parade somewhat, I feel the need to congratulate him on his achievement. Well done Ozzy!

I'm currently watching 'This is England,' but it's quite hard going. It was okay at first, but the racism is really hard to watch, so I've turned over a couple of times, unable to watch. There's a Goth in it though, and she's a pretty good Goth at that. Speaking of which, I'm getting my hair dyed back to brown on Saturday, and I can't wait! I know my parents will moan, and a couple of other people will express their disgust, but it's just hair for Pete's sake! And I'm much happier with dark hair, I hate being blonde, natural colour or not. So sod em all!

Ooh it's got horrible again. God really horrible.

:'(

Filth

After feeding Ozzy, I let him stay outside for half an hour as usual, and look what happened!! Look at the state of him?!!!! What the hell was he doing?!! Mentalist.

Stuff and nonsense

I feel really sick today. Before now, I was laid flat out on the floor doing that 'Oh my god I'm going to die' thing. Now I am upright again, but still nauseous. Course, it's all in my head, so I don't know what I'm worrying about >:0(
With regards to the old doctor situation, last night, because Hefty's working these shifts at the mo and my nights are lonely (sob), I wrote a very long, very detailed letter of complaint. Edited highlights include paragraphs such as these:

"To be told that very real symptoms are all in your head is quite distressing, and yet again, I went away from the ENT department feeling angry and upset. I accept that maybe on paper they can't find anything, but is tact completely beyond these peoples' capabilities? If she'd said, 'I'm sorry, we've done all we can but can't find anything' I would have still been disappointed, but at least I wouldn't have felt like a liar. After four years of a debilitating illness that no-one can diagnose, to be told it's all in your head is just unacceptable. I don't need to be patronised or fobbed off, and frankly I don't appreciate it. There are so many posters up around hospitals saying that verbal abuse or bullying toward staff will not be tolerated, but it seems that Doctors can talk to people however they wish! "

"Not everybody expects to find a solution to their problems, but they do expect, and have a right, to be treated with dignity and respect. And perhaps a little understanding and sensitivity. I hope never to see these unpleasant and unprofessional people again, frankly, I'd rather continue to live with my illness, as my experience was both stressful and upsetting."

I can't imagine anyone will give a shit, but it makes me feel better, and I'll send it to as many people as I have to!

Young Ozzy has been a bit of a punk today. I had to reprimand him for jumping on the sofa (he's not allowed on the sofas) and chewing my Megatron. So now he's in a mood, and decided to hide in his tunnel, before skulking into his cat tent. He may be a fiend, but he's uber cute!




I watched Barbarella last night, always amusing, then Blade 2 was on Channel 4 so I watched that too. I want to watch The Chumscrubber again, so Hefty can see it, but I have to wait til he's not working nights, and I've no idea when that will be! I don't know if I mentioned it, but Hefty bought me the 'Murder, She Wrote' boxed set for Easter, of the first 5 series? Well, I've been watching it for the last few weeks and I'm now halfway through series 5. Which means I've watched a hell of a lot of JB Fletcher, though when I've finished, I'm pretty sure I'll start all over again! I need to finish watching Babylon 5 too though, and we've got Death Proof on the pile as well. So little time, so many DVDs!

When we were in the US, we went to see the Blue Man Group, who were spanktastic! I sort of knew who they were, but didn't really know what they did, so I went in to the show with an open mind. I wasn't disappointed! It's like a cross between music, art, comedy, it's all just completely random, but brilliant! Very clever, and entertaining, I can't wait to see them again. We bought their CD and DVD out there too, though the DVD is different to the show we saw. Here's a taster:

Blue Man Group

I hope the link works, I tried to post the video but I can't figure out how to do it. The instructions aren't very clear!

Well, got to feed Ozzle before he completely falls out with me.

TTFN

A brief encounter

The Chumscrubber is such a good film! It deals with communication issues between parents and teenagers, America's reliance on prescription drugs to solve problems, and a video game. This probably sounds rather bleak and harrowing, but it's not. I'd describe it as a cross between American Pie and Donnie Darko. Jamie Bell is a stonking good actor, I'm going to watch some of his other films, he really blew me away. And that's about as much as I can say without giving too much away. What I can say, is that the soundtrack is also pretty good. There's not a huge amount of music in there, but what is in there is nifty stuff. Except for Placebo. I really don't like Placebo.

I also watched A Very Long Engagement today, which I also enjoyed. Initially I thought it was some kind of romantic comedy, so I put it off, but it aint! It's about a girl who's convinced her fiance didn't die in WWI, and her quest to find him based on some information told to her by an ex-soldier in hospital. She spends the film trying to unravel the mystery of him and the four other soldiers he was with at the time (they were all sentenced to death for self-mutilation). I'm sorry I put off watching it for so long. That'll teach me.

The kitchen is all done! Well, the units are, the worktop is due on the 13th June, and I can't wait! We've been using the espresso machine today though, which was super! It makes wickedace coffee, it's bean to cup, less hassle and mess all round! The froth wand is good too, often a challenge on home models. Yay for Siemens!! :0)

I'm just on me tod, Hefty on night 2 of his funny shifts. Need to practice some songs for the next band rehearsal though really so I think I'll do that! Am dying my hair back dark again next week and I can't wait!

Have a good weekend folks!

Holy freakin' moly!

So my kitchen is coming along brilliantly! I can't believe it! Check it out!






Hefty's doing shifts of 3pm til 1am for the next week, starting from today, so it's just me and Ozmond. I'm just watching 'The Chumscrubber', which is pretty good so far. I did a massive clean of the house earlier then watched Transformers. I must have seen that film 20 times, but I really love it. So there.

Watch this space for film review....